I spent my weekend in Montreal to attend SCBWI Canada East Conference, it was a pretty intensive but inspiring event. I learned a lot from the illustration group critique with Giuseppe Castellano, it was also a wonderful opportunity to meet up my fellow illustrators and authors for sharing experience and struggles.

We had portfolio showcase on Friday night during the "Meet and Greet Party", we were invited to vote for our favourite portfolio. It was my honour to be chosen for the "Exceptional Portfolio". I brought back a simple print and a box of candy award, but it means the world to me! It is such a great encouragement to motivate me to make more good art for children!

I also signed up for an one on one portfolio review. Do you know it needs lot of courage to take this step out? I was assigned to meet with Giuseppe for the review, I was happy but super nervous! It turned out a great talk with him, I was so happy that he likes my works! He asked me to leave him postcards to bring back with him and share with his team! I do not know what will lead to in the future, but having his positive feedback and confirmation do mean so much to me!

It was only a 2 days conference, but what I gained will give me a long lasting impact for sure!

I am back to draw with pencil on paper. they are just as fun as working with digital art. The challenge is to pick up a different set of skill, no undo button! I am happy to take up this little challenge to fresh up myself~

I have never seen a cat who is such a real food lover! I think Sasha could be a food review writer in cat world. His favourite foods such sweet bean, corn, yogurt, bacon, chicken and many more. He was always curious to try all different kinds of food, he thinks nothing but only about the yummy foods all day long!

It is very sad that Sasha left me today, I miss him badly. It was a very painful and difficult decision to let him go, but he has no more suffering. I believe he is enjoying his life in heaven. He gave me lot of great memories which will continue to inspire me to draw.

My husband and I have owned two lovely Tonkinese cats, their names are Max and Sasha. They are two brothers from the same litter. Unfortunately they both have diagnosed lymphoma cancer in last December. Their life expectancy is from few weeks to few months, I know I am going to loose both of them soon. I am spending some good quality time with them and make sure they live as healthy as possible. In the meanwhile, I started drawing them in stories to recap all the memory they have brought to my life. The one below was my first attempt, I am happy to continue to draw their fun silly things. It is very comforting when I draw them out, I hope you do enjoy reading it too~

Max (left with darker hair colour) and Sasha (right with lighter hair colour). Picture was taken on their 12th years old birthday on June 2016.

It is my honour to illustrate Waiting for Sophie written by multi-award winner author Sarah Ellis. This book will be published by Pajama Press in April 2017. I am happy to share the book cover art and couple arts I made for the inside pages, but there will be a lot more to come in the near future. In the meanwhile, find out more information from the Pajama Press Publishing.